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Main influencers for translation speed

How to improve translation speed？ It is a question that confusing us for a long time after we entered into this industry.There are some main factors that can influence translation speed.

The mastery of basic knowledge. That is to say, we should not only have a good command of English language, but also need to have good mastery of the Target language (say Chinese, Japanese, German, Greek, and so forth). They are main factors to influent to the reading and writing ability. To read is one thing; to write out and let others know what on earth you mean is another thing. These are the basics skills that we need to be equipped with, which are fundamental to do all kinds of translation. Beside of this, good reading ability makes precise comprehension, which leads to a coherent thought that will definitely speed up the translation process.

Sufficient rest and clear-minded. Sufficient rest and sleeping is very important. It is the premise to keep a clear mind. One should have good sleep at night, take adequate rest in the day time, and also pay attention to personal health. Good health is the foundation of a fulfilling life. No health, others are just talking nonsense. One who is full of energy can do things more efficiently. For sure it can promote the improvement of speed.

Be wholeheartedly and focus. Less distraction is better for translating more quickly. Some one once said, “Before you act, concentrate in the will that your action may help, at least not hinder in any way, your march forward towards the great discovery.” One need to be concentrated and have less distraction, just concentrate on doing with one thing.

Practice makes perfect. There way a saying, “Roman was not built in a day”. You can never be a good translator only learning from the books and educational institutions, without any practice. If we have do with certain kind of translation materials more often, we will be more skillful at dealing with such kind of materials, then we will speed up.

Have good dictionary and mater good searching abilities. Sharpening will not delay your job. To do a good job, an artisan needs the best tools. Good tools are prerequisite to the successful execution of a job. We can download some good dictionaries into our computers, for looking up words and phrases when needed. Good dictionary can give us not merely the meaning of single words, but also some good ideas, to give us some inspiration. Besides, good search abilities matters as well. In the society with highly developed information technology, the application of network is popularized increasingly, and the mankind society is entering network society. Therefore, Internet is so good a tool for us to use. People who do translation often used to use some searching engines, such as Google, Yahoo, to search for information needed. Sometimes may be the background information; sometimes may be descriptions or explanations. One day, when you are getting used to using the searching engines, you will find yourself inseparable to this.

To learn more in daily-life. One who has richer personal experience might have better reading and understanding. Reading makes progress. People who enjoy reading have more extensive mind and thought. There was an old saying, “Reading is always beneficial”. Reading is like travelling, the process of which enables you to experience the colorful world and enlarge your eyes scope, which will in turn deepen the understanding of things, enhance your comprehension, then certainly can improve your translation speed.

There might be also some other factors beside the above-mentioned ones, or you may have some different thoughts. It does no matter. Those are just some experience after year’s translation. Hope this is useful to you.